Traces

Over summer we became the custodians of Jack's family home. His parents lived here for 55 years and raised their four children under this same roof. It's quite strange to find myself living in a big old house where so many traces of the family remain. After removing a cabinet in the dining room I found layers of patterned wallpaper (above) and shadows on the walls that hold the memory of the framed prints and plaques that hung in the same place for decades.

On the back of the wardrobe door in the main bedroom Jack's Dad stuck the name tags he received from the many medical conferences he attended.

Behind the books in Jack's childhood bedroom, which has been turned into a library, a large mural drawn in chalk by the Ross children over 40 years ago survives largely intact. Here you can see a chess set being stepped on by the scaly blue foot of a dragon.

In the cupboard under the stairs a paper bunny rabbit is pierced by a complimentary ticket, never redeemed, to cross the Harbour Bridge, and the bookshelves lining the galley at the top of the stairs have been filled with part of Jack's collection of American poetry and fiction.

Very old fruit trees fill the backyard, and beneath the Albertine rosebush that runs along the fence, a generation of Ross family cats have found their final resting place.

It is a special thing to share in the Ross family history, and as we settle into the house we'll try to preserve as many of these traces of the past as we can.